Can't remember where we got our set of words from - slightly different to Reg's:

When Norton raised at last, my friends, a new bell on the steeple,
The ringers tried to make amends by rousing up the people:
One morn, you know, before cockcrow, they suddenly got ringing,
And for to make a new-bell wake, set all the bells a-swinging.

CHORUS: They banged each bell and rang so well,
So true their parts did take,
From morn till night there was loud delight
At Norton New-Bell Wake.

The beadle led, Sam Parsonage made the second bell to sing,
Renchurch in, the third pulled in and the fourth did Collins ring,
Dipple fifth, and Atkinson chimed in the sixth so merry,
Tom Mason seventh, and the tenor bell was rattled in by Gerry.

Such ringing ne'er was known before - they fairly shook the spire;
They kicked up one continuous row - 'twas slam, round, change and fire;
The guns did shoot and the folks did hoot on hearing such a clatter;
They ran about to see the rout and learn what was the matter.

They drank too at a furious rate - they nearly spent their store;
Two pence was all left on the plate and they could raise no more;
The warden came in just in time, behaved them fair and well;
They gave a shout when he turned out two shillings for each bell.

At length, 'twas night, and such a sight was there on Norton Green,
And what a squall on Osborne's stall when they fired their magazine;
The crackers flew, and serpents too made all the neighbourhood quake;
Folk thought the Devil had seemed but civil and had come to the New-Bell Wake.

'Twas crack and fizz and smack and whiz, the cakes again did bake,
The powder stunk and most were drunk to end the New-Bell Wake.

*
Note that there is an extra verse, and we've always done the usual chorus at the end, then what Reg calls the final chorus.

Our understanding (and that of someone who lives in Kings Norton) is that the words were found in the church tower there, and that Dick Brice wrote the melody.

Terrific song - we've been singing it for years, and never tire of it.
Enjoy!

Barbara